Chapter 21
21. Do You Think I’m Pretty?
Dinner time.
Chanelrica confirmed that Derwin had come home early and led him to the dining room. Even though Derwin normally refused dinner, she said:
“I am your fiancée, after all. Isn’t it strange for me to eat alone every night? If you’re not going to eat, then at least sit with me.”
It was an unexpected remark, but it made sense. Before he knew it, Derwin had agreed.
And now, he found himself sitting at the dinner table with Chanelrica.
He hadn’t planned to eat—just to sit—but somehow…
Sharing dinner with Chanelrica turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant. The food went down easily.
The mansion staff, observing quietly, fully accepted Chanelrica as Derwin’s fiancée. After all, getting their master—who regularly skipped meals—to sit properly at the table was no small feat.
“You seem to be in a good mood,” Derwin said, finally voicing the thought that had been on his mind.
From the moment Chanelrica came to ask him to eat dinner with her, she had been in high spirits.
“Yes! I feel great! And this pasta is so delicious!”
She was incredibly honest. Her face was glowing with happiness. Seeing her like that, Derwin couldn’t help but feel a little better too.
“Did something good happen?”
“Hmm, not anything major. I just saw some really beautiful flowering trees on my way home.”
Her eyes sparkled brightly.
“Where exactly?” he asked.
“Behind the Kaizel Knights’ building. It seemed like a path people don’t often take, but I followed the scent and there they were. Oh, right! The flowers were called Brunhilde!”
Brunhilde.
A proper noun not easily spoken by the average person rolled off Chanelrica’s tongue. Derwin’s expression briefly stiffened.
“You walked through the path full of flower trees?”
“Yes!”
“How?”
“Huh? What do you mean ‘how’? I just went in.”
At her innocent answer, Derwin frowned slightly.
How was that even possible? Today was the day the king was scheduled to spend the whole day there—security should have been tight.
“Did you meet anyone there?”
“Oh? How did you know? I did! A super handsome man! Flowing blond hair, ocean-blue eyes!”
“….”
Derwin briefly recalled the king’s face—and became certain. The man Chanelrica had met must have been the king. Blond hair and blue eyes weren’t rare, but to meet such a person there? It was almost certainly him. From the way she talked, she didn’t seem to realize it was the king.
“Come to think of it, this country really is full of good-looking men. My eyes are always blessed. Our knight commander is handsome too.”
Our knight commander.
The casual use of “our” made Derwin raise an inner eyebrow. She didn’t seem too hung up on the king, but now another man had entered the conversation, which irritated him for some reason—though he hadn’t realized it himself.
“So that’s why you’re in a good mood?”
“Having nice things to look at is always good! I heard dragons naturally like beautiful and attractive things, and I think it’s true. Just seeing them makes me happy!”
“…I see.”
“Oh, of course! The most handsome man in my eyes is you. I mean, how could you polymorph into a face that’s exactly my type? Just looking at you makes me happy!”
“…Is that so.”
Derwin responded dazedly. The gloomy mood from earlier melted away like snow in the summer sun. But he was also a little flustered. ‘Just looking at you makes me happy because you’re my type’? How was he supposed to respond to that?
His mouth felt dry for no reason, so he reached for his water glass.
“By the way. Do you think I’m pretty?”
Chanelrica paused mid-chew and asked the question with a sweet smile.
For a moment, Derwin almost spit out the water he’d just sipped. That came out of nowhere. He barely avoided a mishap at the table, but both ears turned red.
“Oh! Your ears are turning red!”
Chanelrica’s innocent excitement at the discovery made Derwin swallow hard. He coughed, having swallowed the wrong way.
“Well, I should be pretty. My friend helped me polymorph into this look. Dragons have their own preferences, you know? You might not remember because of your memory loss, but instinctively, I probably look beautiful to you. Just like how I think you’re the most handsome man.”
One cringeworthy statement after another. It was a lot for Derwin to handle. He decided to change the subject.
“Lady Chanelrica, did you also have mint-colored eyes in your dragon form?”
It was the only question he could come up with while staring into her sparkling eyes.
Since she moved in as his fiancée, Derwin had confirmed she could fluently speak various languages. It might’ve been pure talent, but still, it wasn’t something an ordinary human could do. Whether it was because she was really a dragon—he didn’t know.
Still, as promised, he decided to respect her as a dragon, to some extent. So asking such a question wasn’t strange—even if he didn’t fully believe her.
“Uuh… I’ve never looked in a mirror in dragon form, so I don’t know! What color are my eyes, anyway?”
She looked genuinely curious.
“Come to think of it, I’m not even sure what I looked like as a dragon. Just that I had white scales, so I was a White Dragon?”
White Dragon.
Derwin imagined what a White Dragon might look like. If it had white scales and the same mint-colored eyes as her current human form, maybe even a large, fearsome dragon would look… endearing.
“You must’ve been dazzling.”
Derwin shared his honest impression of the image in his head. Chanelrica smiled faintly.
“Hmm… I don’t think my dragon partner thought that way. But I’m glad my human fiancé, who’s lost his memory, thinks so. Please don’t change your mind even after your memories return.”
That smile made Derwin unconsciously wish to see her true form one day.
“By the way, do you know that your pitch-black scales are super cool too? They’re the same color as your current hair and eyes.”
“….”
“Aren’t you curious about how you look? Next time, let’s go to the lake together. Heehee.”
And again, without realizing it, he found himself wishing… that he really was a dragon.
H.B.R.G. – Palace News
The Royal Palace of Camton Kingdom.
It was only after sunset that King Eleusis emerged from the Brunhilde Forest. Glyn was there to greet him.
“Welcome back, Your Majesty.”
At this time every year, the king would spend the entire day in his beloved Brunhilde Forest.
His deep affection for the Brunhilde flowers kept him there for a week annually. The flowers, once loved by the former king and queen, held memories from Eleusis’s days as a prince.
So even though the trees only bloomed with fragrance for one week a year, Eleusis insisted on growing them as a royal privilege. Normally they reeked, were hard to care for, and cost a fortune—but he paid out of pocket. That’s how important they were to him.
“The scent is stronger than usual today,” Glyn remarked.
“Today’s probably the peak.”
As Eleusis’s personal knight and longtime friend, Glyn studied the king’s face. This season always made Eleusis somber and sentimental—especially because it reminded him of when the late king, whom he admired, was murdered by his own uncle.
But today was different. The usual gloom wasn’t there. In fact, Glyn had never seen Eleusis so full of life after emerging from the forest. He grew curious about what had changed.
“Glyn. Security was a bit sloppy today.”
“…Pardon?”
“An outsider entered. All my guards were outside the forest.”
A bombshell. An outsider? Glyn’s face went pale.
“Were you harmed?!”
But Eleusis didn’t look upset. Glyn was baffled.
Letting an outsider reach the king while he was alone was a colossal mistake. But judging from the king’s expression, it wasn’t something he’d be punished for. As his knight and friend, Glyn could sense it.
“Hmm. Maybe you missed her because she was tiny.”
“The intruder was small in stature?”
“She was. Glyn, look into her—discreetly.”
Eleusis looked intrigued. Glyn was sure he’d seen that expression on the king’s face before.
“Yes, Your Majesty. What should I investigate?”
“There must be a female translator who recently entered the palace. Find out how she got in and where she’s working.”
His ocean-blue eyes gleamed. Glyn blinked, then nodded. And at that moment, he realized when he had last seen that look.
It must’ve been that day—the day a suspicious woman appeared at the temple, dined with the king, and was even given a room at an inn. The look on Eleusis’s face now was just like it had been then.
Could today’s intruder be that same woman?
Glyn’s expression turned complicated.
“This morning’s breakfast was the best I’ve ever had!”
Bright and early, Chanelrica beamed as they stepped out of the Cartel residence.
“Is that so?”
Derwin looked away. Normally, the two didn’t leave the house at the same time. Derwin left first, and Chanelrica followed 30 minutes later. But today, for some reason, she woke up early—and they ended up leaving together.
“Every night before I sleep, I look forward to what I’ll get to eat the next day. That’s why I woke up early today.”
“I’m glad it satisfied you.”
“How do the chefs here cook so well? It’s like they make exactly the kind of food I love!”
Probably because it’s all meat.
Derwin kept that thought to himself. Since he’d decided to treat her as a dragon, he’d adjusted the entire meal plan to be meat-heavy—just in case dragons had particular tastes. Even the normally light vegetarian breakfasts.
“With such a delicious breakfast, your day must be off to a good start.”
“Yep! Thank you so much!”
Chanelrica smiled brightly. Wearing her beige palace uniform and a high ponytail of soft pink hair, her white neck peeking through caught Derwin’s eye.
How does she always shine like that?
Turning away felt oddly disappointing. And thinking that others would see that same beautiful neckline made him uneasy. So even though he needed to leave for work, his feet wouldn’t move toward the carriage.
“…Today is the princess’s lesson day. I suppose I’ll see you again this afternoon.”
He meant to say he was leaving first, but that’s not what came out.
“Oh, right. By the way, when you’re not with the princess, where are you?”
“I have a separate office inside her palace quarters, where I handle other duties.”
“Hmm… So you’re only doing knight-related work right now?”
“For the time being, yes.”
“What about training?”
Derwin paused. Training? That was unexpected. Chanelrica noticed and added,
“You’re a knight. The Kaizel Knights train hard every day. Even the commander!”
At the mention of the commander, Derwin’s brow twitched slightly.
“I train… privately.”
“Where?”
“At the residence.”
“Ah, really? Then when do you train? I want to watch!”
Her eyes sparkled again. She really was like his dog, Mobelion. No tail, since she’s human—but he swore he could see one, wagging invisibly and weakening his resolve.
“…If I train today, will you come watch?”
“Really?! Can I?! I’d love to! I want to see it ten, no, twenty times!”
What’s so exciting about this?
Derwin smiled faintly.
“Come to the backyard after work.”
When he saw her lips curl into a grin that reached her ears, Derwin’s mood lifted too. Unaware that her smile had just made Chanelrica’s heart skip a beat.
